If politicians can't tackle Global Warming then the voters must

The Copenhagen Climate Talks showed that most politicians are unwilling to tackle Global Warming by implementing policies that will cut carbon emissions and reduce their carbon footprint.

So perhaps it is down to the people who elect the politicians to show them what to do. There are signs that concerned citizens are starting to act to try and reduce their carbon footprint. In the UK, the aim of the town of Todmorden on the Lancashire/Yorkshire border is to make themselves entirely self-sufficient in food production by 2018. There is a town-wide project called Incredible Edible, which has resulted in vegetable patches being started in people's gardens, children eating more local produce at school, and chickens being kept by many people. Another UK initiative is the 10:10 campaign, started by the director of The Age of Stupid Franny Armstrong. Anyone, from individuals to large companies, can sign up for the campaign, the aim of which is to cut carbon emissions by 10% by the end of 2010. What both these initiatives show is a collective self-interest that's totally lacking in global politics. If ordinary people can band together to reduce their carbon emissions then maybe the time will then be right for a national politician to run for office with a mandate based on these local campaigns and ideas, but applied on a national scale. If people are prepared to act so responsibly to save the environment on a local basis then they might just vote for a politician who can apply these changes to a whole nation. Democracy at work? - let's hope so.